Unpaid carer says DWP’s fraud prosecution threat was ‘like blackmail’

Clemency Jacques and her disabled son, Alex, at home in Brighton. Jacques also cares for her frail elderly mother. Photograph: Jill Mead/The Guardian

A vulnerable unpaid carer threatened by benefits officials with prosecution for fraud unless she agreed to pay a £1,300 penalty for an accidental breach of carer’s allowance earnings rules has described her experience as “like blackmail”.

Clemency Jacques, a carer for her disabled son, was told by Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) investigators her case would be referred to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) unless she paid a 50% charge on top of an existing agreement to repay £2,600 in carer’s allowance overpayments – a total of £3,900.